9.13.2010

Eugene Richards was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in English. He then studied photography with Minor White. He has works published in Life, The New York Times magazine, National Geographic, Esquire, the New Yorker, and he was a member of Magnum Photos for a total of eighteen years. He has also published fifteen photo books, and wrote and directed a short film.

This is an image of a Sicilian woman just after she gave birth. The image was taken in 1990 in Washington, D.C. for Life magazine. The tears running down her face are tears of joy, which were, at first, misleading because I assumed something went wrong with the birth. I am interested in this image because of how close Richards got to the subject during such an intense moment. The woman's husband was just about to lean over and give her a kiss when Richards took the shot. Richards takes photographs of intense situations, which is unusual because he says that he is a shy person. Although, when photographing he finds it easier to get up close to his subjects and he prefers shooting with a wide-angle lens. I find his images captivating because of his lack of self-consciousness when he is getting in close for the shot. His images suggest that he has no fear stepping into someone else's reality to record their most emotional moments.